Whispers in the Dark
by Hoshiro Raider
Summary: In '99, Minato doesn't just wake to the Dark Hour. He wakes to darkness itself. Coming to Iwatodai, the voices of Shadows speaks in his mind, and he speaks back, tongue scarred. When he is pulled into SEES, only trust will pull him through. But if SEES knew that he could talk to their very enemies, could trust save anyone? (Written with Second City Saint and Raidou The 16th)
1. Aimless Spiel

_Thanks to Raidou for beta-ing and Nights for helping me flesh stuff out before I got myself into trouble. XD_

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Minato didn't speak much. He was clumsy with his words, dropping them and adding phrases that he didn't need to his sentences. Whenever he spoke, it felt like he was constantly falling over like a rookie doing ice skating. Whether it was English, French or even his native language, Japanese, he stumbled over his words constantly.

Not that it bothered him. Minato didn't like speaking to people anyways. He didn't find them interesting after a while. Listening to music occupied him like a sloth to napping, and that was what he did to pass the time instead.

The next question would be the big reason _why_ he didn't like talking to people, and why he was so bad at it as well. You might guess by now, that it wasn't because he was bad at interacting with people. Far from, in fact. It was because he had an ongoing problem with articulating the words that he said.

He couldn't speak easily at all. His tongue didn't cooperate and napped more times than he did. Minato wasn't bothered by his speaking impediment however. It suited him just fine. No; that isn't an expression. His tongue was badly scarred and slashed, often with new cuts marring the surface all the time. Because of that, he held a constantly a pool of liquid-y blood in his mouth. He lived with the stinging and pain in his mouth with about as much care as a chair had for a table. That is to say, none at all. But still, he would rather stay quiet if to save him some patience.

Now the reason as to why he had that problem at all? That was another mystery.

Because he didn't speak often, Minato became exceedingly quiet; almost mute in fact. He only spoke when he decided that he needed to, and even then you could barely hear him. Minato disliked projecting his voice.

The only thing that was loud about that blue haired boy was the volume at which he blasted the music in his earphones. With his mind on tunes and notes, and a sleepy voice, he was by no means an easy person to talk to. He did more than he said to make up for that.

Minato had taken a comfortable seat on the train that he was taking to Iwatodai. That was his home town, and he had left it about ten years ago. But now, he was coming back so that he could do something about the scholarship that he had gotten from Gekkoukan, the private high school in that area.

A deep sigh escaped Minato's lips, and he darted his eyes over the couple of people that were scattered around the seats as well. Closing his eyes briefly, he concentrated.

He came in contact with the sea of his soul, and he dove headfirst. The once calm water split to allow him entrance, and the ocean swallowed him whole. Minato took a breath, swimming down into the darkness until he reached a part of the sea that was stark black. A low growl burbled into his ears, and his tired lips upturned into a smile. He held out his arm, and the monster that lay beneath took him deeper into the trench.

Minato opened his eyes once more, hearing the quiet whisper that he was so accustomed to. "I really suck at my job… I'm worthless… I should stop… maybe if I disappeared, no-one would notice…" That was the typical thing that he heard. He was familiar with it.

Instead of using his voice to reply, breezy whispers blew from his mouth. It was so quiet, but if someone was close enough to him, they'd be able to hear the demonic hissing. You could hear the snarls, the roars and the savage language of the pits of the human psyche. 'Shadows' were their names. "I'm guessing your week wasn't so good, was it?" he spoke.

No-one could recognise what he was saying, except for the Shadow of the business man that was coming home late from work. Droopy eyelids and deep eye bags marked his face, and it was clear that he never had a lot of sleep. His black head of hair was tousled about, in a mess. A step beyond windblown. "No, it wasn't…"

"You keep getting the bad ends from work, don't you? So you work late to make up for it, and that's why you're on this train," Minato continued, trying to get a hold of the situation.

"…that's right," the Shadow answered.

Minato briefly wondered whether his wife was a control freak before answering back in the faint, demonic whispers. "I see," Minato nodded silently. The mechanical sound of the PA rang through the train, and at that, the blue haired teen shook his head. "I'm sorry I can't talk to you any longer, Shadow-san. But hang in there. Don't go and kill yourself, you hear?"

The Shadow fell silent, almost as if it was in awe. But as for the business man who held that Shadow… he smiled ever so slightly.

Minato sighed. He really did want to talk to that Shadow more. It sounded like it needed just a little push so that he could be a bit happier. He sorta liked Shadows. They were honest. Hidden feelings were the most honest ones. The most vulnerable part of the human psyche, he thought. He didn't like talking to the person instead. They'd lie constantly to hide what plagued them deep inside.

It was all fun and gossip. That was, until one Shadow goes nuts and tears your eye out. He sighed at that thought.

When the train pulled itself to a steady halt and the doors opened, with mechanical practice, the last people on that train exited onto the Iwatodai station platform. Minato looked around, then back to his map. He was pretty sure he could find his way on from there. But the matter of time was what worried him most.

The gentle tapping of his boots against the tiled floor was all that filled the hall as he walked on through the lit up fluorescent haze, to the exit. Minato stopped just before the station gates and looked up at the clock, then back to his watch. It was nearly midnight. He passed through the gates, his ticket being captured.

Only a few moments after Minato had walked through, the air stopped.

An emerald, green tint was placed onto the objects around him. The corners of the walls and the ceiling were stained with scarlet liquid, presumably blood. What supported that assumption was the dead smell of iron that hung in the air, cold and lifeless in the green murk. Minato took a deep breath, reminding himself of this nightly occurrence. The 'Dark Hour' as he had dubbed it, happened every midnight since his parents died in '99.

Successfully gathering his thoughts, he walked on through the rest of the station out into the open. In the Dark Hour, no electronics that he knew of worked. That meant that the lights were out. And that also meant his mp3 player was of no use to him at that moment. There was only one thing that he didn't like about the Dark Hour, and that was the fact that it took away his music.

Minato eyed the area around him, searching for any wild Shadows. Shadows that weren't in people showed in the Dark Hour instead. That was the main reason why he liked the Dark Hour. He could meet with Shadows and talk to them. By the end of the Dark Hour his tongue was slashed from talking to the Shadows for too long. He gained a gash for every hour that he spoke in Shadowy language.

He smiled a little as he felt around for Shadows. For whatever reason, he could feel the presence of several Shadows in the immediate area. Minato didn't know why, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about it. And as to why he could even feel Shadow presences? That was because he seemed to be attuned to be able to find them very easily. The reason why he was so keen on their presences was a mystery even to him.

Come out, come out wherever you are. Surely those fiends didn't need to get off. Clearing his throat, he quickly triggered his Shadow speech, and the demonic whispers began. Right on cue, the cacophony of sounds that flowed from his lips attracted a couple of Shadows. "Hello," he waved to them. Their blobby forms solidified and melted constantly as they crawled towards him. In their pairs of red eyes, he could sense confusion and curiosity. "I'm Minato," he introduced himself.

The two Shadows in front of him turned to each other before looking back at him. "You can speak to us," one of them noted. It was the larger of the two.

"Yeah," Minato nodded. "What're your names?" Shadows, as the suppressed inner psyche too had names which they took from their real selves.

"I am Jun. Nice to meet you," the smaller spoke in a squeaky voice.

"I'm Yumi," the larger introduced itself with what seemed to be a bow as it lowered its gaze.

"Nice to meet you," Minato nodded, bowing slightly to the Shadows as part of his introduction. "If you don't mind me asking, would you happen to know where the Iwatodai co-ed dorm is? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but it would be nice to get some directions."

"Don't you have a map?" Yumi asked.

"I do, but… I just wanted to see what the Shadows here are like," Minato laughed a little.

"Minato-san, the dormy thing is over that way!" Jun said excitedly.

"Jun, why are you helping him? You don't know if you can trust him," Yumi scolded. Minato raised an eyebrow. Were they close family or something?

"But he seems nice onee-san! Don't you think so too?" Jun asked.

Minato nodded. He was right. Jun was Yumi's otouto, so they were indeed like he thought they were. "But… Jun…" Yumi sighed. "Anyways, yes the dorm is over in that direction. Is that all?"

"Yes. Thank you Yumi-san, Jun-san," Minato nodded. "Hopefully I may see you two around another time." As Minato left, Yumi and Jun looked to each other with seemingly confused eyes, but somehow they felt reassured. They didn't know why that Minato person had affected them so, particularly Yumi, but they accepted the feeling anyways.

It seemed to Minato that they at least had his back then. He sure hoped so anyways.

Wordlessly, Minato headed towards the direction that Jun had pointed out earlier. He paid no mind to the coffins that covered the street, and stepped over any puddles of blood that he could. The coffins contained people. He noticed before that the coffins seemingly took people's places when the Dark Hour came. After some investigation, he found that indeed; the coffins contained the unconscious bodies of people within them. He had that much time in the Dark Hour to find out, so he did.

It wasn't long before he found his way to the Iwatodai dormitory, unscathed. There was something to be said about Shadows. He liked talking to them.

But only to the ones that wouldn't attack him. Others did. So he had to be careful during the Dark Hour. If he wasn't he could get seriously injured by a Shadow attack. Let it be known that they hit hard. Very hard. His last encounter with a Gigas Shadow left him in tatters. Gigas Shadows looked kinda like Hulk Hogan wrestlers. They were huge and strong. Their muscles were pronounced and that weight made them formidable.

Minato knew a bit about defending himself because of encounters like that, but even he had a hard time getting out of a scrape like that. He didn't like destroying Shadows if he could help it, but that Gigas Shadow definitely ended up on his 'destroyed' list. It was unpleasant and messy.

The dorm stood before him, four stories tall and imposing. But most of all, he found it to be quite empty of Shadows. The thing about Shadows was that you could find them pretty much everywhere, because people always had a Shadow to deal with. For some reason he couldn't feel any and that interested Minato.

Without further delay he opened up the entrance to the dorm, and as he suspected there wasn't anybody there. An eerie quiet filled the air, covering the place with a thick pall of silence. Minato found it almost unnerving. "You're late," he heard a young boy's voice say.

He turned towards the direction of the voice, finding a pale skinned boy with a beauty mark under his right eye in black and white striped pyjamas, and an equally black head of hair. But what struck Minato as so bizarre was just how blue his eyes were. They were bright, and they sparkled mischievously. They shone brighter than the sky did in the day. Somehow, he felt the boy's eyes piercing his very soul. But he didn't feel scared.

Minato felt calm; calmer than he had been in a long time. He looked the boy over with an amicable gaze. Minato felt his voice moving into action, as if he was compelled to speak to him. "The trains… they were delayed," he spoke softly.

"I know," the boy nodded with a smile. "Well then. Would you please sign your name here?" He beckoned Minato to the counter that he was sitting on top of, gesturing to the folder. Minato blinked as said folder opened on its own; plastic case, cover and all. "It's a contract. Don't worry. All it says is that you will take full responsibility for your actions. You know. The usual stuff."

Minato raised an eyebrow at 'the usual stuff', but he brushed it off. He had seen weirder. He moved to the counter and picked up the fountain pen, signing his name in characters on the line beneath the blocks of text. He was tired, and he didn't bother reading through it properly. Minato wondered whether that was a mistake or not.

Right. Sleep. Tired. Don't care.

A few seconds after he finished, the boy took the contract and held it close to his chest, much like a child would a teddy bear. "No-one can escape time…" he said, "It delivers us all to the same end," the boy continued as he lifted his hand, the contract disappearing before Minato's eyes into thin air. "You cannot cover your eyes or plug your ears…" He stepped and appeared in the darkness, melting into the black.

"So it begins…" he smiled, until even his stark eyes faded into the shadows.

The atmosphere disappeared like lifting fog, and Minato felt like it was safe to breathe again. His mind wandered over the words that the mysterious boy gave him, musing over the meaning. He could see it clearly, no doubt. That everything will lead to the same thing. Death.

He mused on that thought for a while, but his concentration was broken when he heard a voice bound down the stairs in frenzy. "Who's there!?" It was a girl's voice.

Feeling no Shadow presence, he tried to reach out for it, but all he got was a wall saying to him a prompt 'fuck no! You ain't getting past this, bitch!' That didn't actually happen. But the bottom line was that he could not communicate with the girl's Shadow. He flinched as a headache hit him, presumably from trying to probe for her Shadow. Bad idea.

Minato looked to the figure of the girl as she emerged from the shadows. She was wearing a pink blazer on top of a white blouse with a bright red ribbon around her neck. A grey skirt hung down to the tops of his knees, and long, white socks came to meet the hem, loafers on her feet. She had pale, but lightly tanned skin, with a shoulder length head of milky brown hair, with eyes to match. He tiled his head at the girl, wondering who she was. Actually, how was she awake in the Dark Hour? Pretty much all of the other people in the Dark Hour just turned into coffins. Did it have something to do with how he wasn't able to talk to her Shadow?

Minato raised an eyebrow as she reached to her leg, a silver glint cutting through the darkness. From what he could grasp, it appeared to be shaped like a gun. He ran the possibilities through his head. He would have assumed that it was for self-defence, however extreme the means were. But the problem was that she was pointing the barrel of the gun to her forehead. That didn't make sense at all.

Minato clicked his wounded tongue in annoyance, slightly taking a step back. Necrophilia was not cool.

"Takeba, wait!" A strong, commanding voice called out to the girl, and the brunette turned to look at the figure behind her. Minato mused that whoever this person was, it felt as if she held the attention of an army, at least ten thousand strong. It was calm, cool, clear. Like water, or ice. No doubt her personality reflected just that. He turned his gaze to the person behind the brunette.

Light flickered on and off, the usual greenness of the Dark Hour disappearing, replaced and forced out. Minato adjusted his eyes to the new brightness in the room, and he turned his gaze to look upon the two girls in front of him. The one at the back, presumably the older of the two, wore a white, long-sleeved shirt with the same red ribbon around her neck as the brunette. The same grey skirt was on her waist, but instead of socks, she had knee-length boots. Her skin was pale, like fresh snow, and waves of crimson hair flowed down to the small of her back, her eyes the same colour as her wine-like tresses.

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late," the redhead commented. Minato merely looked on at her with a blank expression, prompting her to move on as her lip trembled under his gaze. "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students at this dorm, and this…" she indicated the shaky brunette, "…is Yukari Takeba. She's a junior this spring, like you."

"Uh, hey," Yukari said, waving very lightly. Minato sighed. She appeared to still be very nervous from earlier. For whatever reason he couldn't fathom. He wasn't that scary, was he?

Minato nodded curtly at the brunette, earning himself a confused look form Yukari. And was that a small amount of disdain for lack of manner? Pfft. He was used to that kind of look. And he didn't feel the need to speak, other than to introduce himself. "I'm Minato Arisato," he said quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Yukari asked. "I couldn't hear you."

Minato looked with his stony eyes and just smirked. "Japanese woman, do you speak it? Minato Arisato," he said louder. A frown creased his features as he found scratchy dryness locked at the back of his throat. That's what happens when you don't use your voice a lot. "I don't like talking since…" he began, stopping mid-sentence to fake cough. "That," he finished lamely.

"Oh, I see," Yukari nodded. "S-Sorry…" She was taken aback by his sudden outburst.

Minato just shrugged, shaking his head. The situation was awkward, so he yawned, indicating that he wanted to get some rest. "Your journey must've been tiring. Takeba will show you to your room," Mitsuru said.

Yukari looked curiously at Mitsuru before realising what she was supposed to do. "Uh, oh right! Follow me," she beckoned. Mitsuru left the scene just a few seconds after that, and Minato began his way up the stairs. Sweet sleep was coming, and he couldn't wait to drop his head onto his pillow and get some shuteye.

He continued once up the flight of stairs, presumably to the boy's section of the dorm. The two walked to the end of the hall, few doors separated by cream wall along the corridor on either side. "This is your room," Yukari began as she stopped at the end of the hall. "Our curfew's at eleven, so make sure you come back here then, and sign your name off at the roster on the counter. And make sure you don't lose your keys, otherwise you'll never hear the end of it."

Minato chuckled silently, only the slight curve of his lips ever indicating that he was happy about something. No-one was going to be signing anything at that counter. He could just tell. "Thank you," he mumbled.

Yukari nodded. "You're welcome. Um… on the way here, did you see anything strange?"

"No. Surely no other worldly creatures roaming around the streets," Minato said slowly, nodding his head.

Yukari bit back a gasp. She studied Minato's face. The glint of mischievousness in his eyes made her think he was playing, "I see... Well, you can rest now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask." Yukari instructed. Minato nodded back, grateful for his opportunity for sleep. After closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, he quickly undressed and fell onto his bed.

Sleep.

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**Star: Yo. Came up with this on a whim, but I talked it over with these two stooges and look what was born. (By stooges I mean Raidou and Nights mwahahaha) Welcome to Whispers in the Dark, and yes we used a Skillet reference as the title of the fic. How original. *slow claps* In any case, hope you enjoy this fic in all it's violence and dark tones, and hopefully these two can keep me on a leash with what I spew. Plz box us yo thoughts and we'll see ya guys later. :3**

**Nights: *coughs* Vain much, RG? Anyway, welcome to Whispers, get ready for a gory, dark and crazy tale, with our non OP (first time for me) protag. And please, *cough* box us yo thoughts, and imma see you guys later! *dashes off***

**Raidou: Hm.**

**Star: STAHP STEALING MAH CATCHPHRASES! Also I'm so iffy about grammar that I'm even going to edit them guys' ANs because if I don't it's going to annoy me to high heavens. *erhem* In any case, I'll probably be doing most of the review replies, so yay. If you want someone specific to answer, then sure, ask. But no promises. Sowwy. Now I'm really out. I won't always be the person with the last word, so yeah. Have some fun with our bickering. *teehee***


	2. Viscous Mind

Minato barely had his eyes even half-lidded while he idly listened to Yukari's banter about how pretty the island was, and the water, and how it felt like you were gliding over the ocean. He didn't care. But he heard. Something about her told him that he wasn't going to like her that much. He wasn't quite sure what yet. And it wasn't because he couldn't talk to her Shadow.

"Hey, were you even listening?" Yukari asked, turning Minato around to face her. He hadn't responded once to what she said, and it was beginning to tick her off.

Minato scoffed before nodding. "Yeah," he replied curtly. Fuck it. Listening to music on the monorail as it clattered away was suffocating him, he swore. From what little he had seen of the bustling city of Iwatodai- or what little he had bothered to pay attention to –he wasn't quite sure that he liked it. Did he even like it before he came back?

…can't remember. Too hazy.

Yukari groaned and beckoned him out the sliding doors as the monorail sailed to a stop and gave a small sigh of exhaustion as the people alighted from it. Minato clicked his tongue (kind of) in annoyance as he paid more attention to the tapping and shrieking of shoes across the tiled floor. There were masses of them, loads. The people moved in and out as if there was a system to how they walked, but he knew there wasn't. Just so happened that some people went to nearly the same places and some people didn't. That was just how it worked.

People going to the same workplaces, people going out to the same places, and people that so happened not to know where they were going. He really felt like he couldn't breathe at all. There were so many other people around him, sucking in the same air. Argh. "Uh, are you okay?" Yukari asked, as she noticed him spacing out.

Minato gazed at Yukari steadily before closing his eyes, nodding ever so slightly. "Tch… Move," he mumbled. "We need to move," Minato continued after seeing the confused look on Yukari's face.

"Uh right," she nodded hastily as they began their ways to the campus. Yukari didn't seem to mention the places that they were passing by, like the mall, and the docks to the side. And the ferries to the other. Port Island was man-made by the Kirijo Group. Minato truly had to wonder why they would bother making something like Port Island when it seemed like they were wasting so much money by doing that.

He might've done some little research on the Kirijo Group, but he wasn't them. He certainly didn't wish to be them either.

The subtle scrape of his boots against concrete stairs was all that he was concentrating on. Not the whispers of the Shadows from the students that were going to school as well. It was all the same drabble, and he had heard enough of it long before. When you had been going to school for as long as he had, you noticed things. He had at least listened a tiny bit to their Shadows, but he found that most student Shadows were basically the same thing: school sucks, why can't I go home, I could be fapping to some hentai in this time, not goddamned studying.

And that was just some of the guys. The girls talked about talking to each other, what they should do after school, life must oh-so-totally suck, haha, she's a slut, blah. Etcetera, etcetera.

Seriously, it was just the same thing over and over again, and it wasn't even that rare to find a really, dark, repressed Shadow in a student that was being constantly bullied. The question there would be whether he or she would acknowledge it, or let it consume them. That was scary.

With how tainted he was just by listening to Shadows all day, he was even afraid that he could be consumed by his own Shadow. It was a possibility. He knew he had one. He didn't know what it said, but it did. And even though he couldn't understand those low growls and snarls 'neath the sea of his soul, he could hear the anger and the crazed beast that he somehow kept leashed.

He wondered what it would be like if it… if it was unleashed.

Mechanically, he listened to Yukari's painfully short tour and began his way to the faculty office. He somehow knew that he was going to be accosted by bad memories. It happened every time that he moved schools. And he transferred a lot. Minato was used to it by now, but there was always this nagging feeling that lay underneath his calmness. A twitch. A small crack in his carefully crafted shell. You would hardly even notice it. It just blended in with the rest of him near seamlessly.

"Ten years ago, your parents…" the brunette teacher gasped.

Minato raised his stony gaze ever so slightly to hers, and for a moment, she froze. His eyes were like that. They were cold, dead, hardened. Or were they alive still? He couldn't tell. He didn't care even. But he wanted this teacher to shut up and lead him to the auditorium, wherever the fuck that place was. He shrugged visibly, telling the teacher not to harp on it.

He barely could remember all of the parts of the incident that led him to being tossed around the country, only that it was the same night that he awakened to the Dark Hour, and that it was the same night that his parents died. Minato didn't know what exactly killed them, only that there was a car crash and nothing else. The rest was a blur, as if it was erased by something, or someone. The memories were locked up somewhere, but for all the searching he could've done, he didn't find any. It was frustrating.

But one thing was for sure; if he ever found out exactly what caused his life to go veering off into another direction and off a cliff, he was going to mutilate it and bring it a torturous death.

She was still nervous, but she introduced herself anyways. "I'm sorry. I haven't had time to read this beforehand," she said, shaking her head. "My name is Isako Toriumi. Your class is 2-F. That's my class," Toriumi-sensei said.

Minato nodded along with her words. "I see…" he mumbled.

Toriumi-sensei nodded at that. "I'll lead you to the auditorium," she said.

While they walked, Minato wasn't all that focused on what was ahead of him. Of course, there was _something_ to see, but he didn't really pay attention to it. Pfft. He just drew his eyes over the clean halls, and the energy of some of the students. Some of them, he found that their Shadows were much more interesting than normal. It was a thought that tugged at him. He didn't know why. He wasn't trying to listen that time.

In the middle of the principal's drawl, and in the middle of the square crowd of cacophony, Minato felt a sinking pit in his stomach forming, ever so slowly. The whispers at the back of his head from the Shadows he could hear were getting to him. A throbbing headache plagued him throughout the assembly, and he was not at all pleased. He was becoming increasingly pissed. And whenever he got pissed, his wit was at its sharpest and his words cut.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Minato snapped his head towards the annoying buzz behind him, glaring like he wanted to tear into him. "What."

The student flinched, but continued nevertheless. "You came to school with Yukari-san this morning, didn't you? Do you know if she has a boyfriend?"

Minato felt static racing in his mind. He was irritated already from that morning, and the whispers. He snapped back. "Fuck off. I barely looked at her, let alone talked to her for the few hours that I've known her. You expect me to know something like that? Go off and find out yourself you spineless little prick!" Minato snarled.

The student opened his mouth to retaliate, but Minato shut him up promptly. "On goes the sad little virgin, huh? Have fun masturbating in your room upstairs, and good luck in stealing her panties."

That was a tongue-lashing but he couldn't even do that. Actually, now that he thought about it… was he really only that articulate when he wanted to screw someone over? People whispered about him, as if Shadow whispers weren't enough already. "I hear some students talking. They're from Toriumi's class!" Minato heard a contemptuous voice over the goddamned racket.

"Shh, you'll get me into trouble," she hissed.

"Ain't my fault that he's a horny little desperado," Minato scowled. Thankfully, nobody caught his little snark.

Minato rolled his eyes before sinking into his chair, closing his eyes, hoping that the howling hollowness at the back of his mind would just go away. He could choose to listen to Shadows or not, but when there were a lot of them it just got annoying because whether he wanted to listen was disregarded, and their voices overpowered everything else.

"We have a new student joining our class today," Toriumi-sensei began, quieting the students.

Minato slid the door open, walking slowly to the blackboard, and as per usual, writing his name in kanji in white chalk. He scrutinized the faces with a blank gaze. Yukari was in his class. Pfft. How fun. "…I'm Minato. I don't like talking to people…" Cough. "Because I get interrupted by… things like that."

Fake coughing. Old trick, but it kept people from talking to him at least. For the most part anyways. As Minato sat down, he could clearly hear students talking about him. More gossiping. Wonderful. It was just more mindless banter that he looked hot and that his silent tough guy 'facade' was all to get the ladies.

He didn't look for girls. Girls looked for him. He always questioned that though. Minato never really thought of himself as charming or attractive at all. Nor did he have an interest in pursuing a relationship with a girl. He was just too much of a jerk to care and too paranoid to want to find out.

As Toriumi went on with housekeeping and her lecture, Minato rest his head on his folded arms, and began to fall away out of reality as his eyes shut. His eyes tried not to see under his eyelids, and he searched for sleep. God knew he wanted it and needed it. Question was how long it was going to last. The god of sleep was a bitch like that.

The only things that had managed to interrupt his sleep were the bells and he was about ready to get up and go back to the dorm. But then a capped dick woke him up. "Hey, dude."

Minato turned his head and cracked his eyes open to get a good look at the sleep stealing bastard. He looked up, a vengeful glare on the capped teen in front of him. "School's over dude," he raised his hands in defence.

"You mean to say that the rest of the class are dicks enough to leave a guy getting his sleep behind," Minato mumbled under his breath. He thought this guy was alright. For then at least. From what Minato could sense, this person also had a deep seated Shadow at the back of his mind, although different from the rest. He might as well give him some time of day. "What's your name?" he asked, swallowing back some blood.

"My name's Junpei Iori!" the overly cheerful capped teen introduced himself. "But you can just call me Junpei. I transferred here when I was in the 8th grade. Thought I'd be nice and see how you're doing," he grinned.

Minato nodded before fake coughing into his sleeve. "I'm good," he replied.

"Uh, what's up with your coughing?" Junpei asked.

"…it's a thing that makes people more averse to talk to me, I'm not sick," Minato groaned. "You better not tell anybody. If you do, I'd have no qualms acquainting my knife with your prick," he said, venom lacing his voice.

Junpei immediately crossed his legs and gulped. "D-Down dude, I ain't gonna tell," he said with a nervous smile and laugh. "But what I do wanna ask is about why you were with Yukari-chan in the morning. People've been talking about that all day," he explained.

"Ugh, at it again huh?" Minato's eyes narrowed at the voice. "I swear… Junpei, don't you think that he better things to do than wanting to talk to you?"

"Whoa there dragon-lady, I was just being friendly!" Junpei's eyes widened.

"How was your first day?" Yukari asked politely.

Minato shut and rolled his eyes before replying, "Okay."

"That's good," Yukari nodded. "Hey, you haven't told anyone, have you?"

He shook his head. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to tell anyways. It wasn't as if he had the energy or was bothered enough to use his mouth.

"Oh good. But seriously, don't tell anyone about last night," she continued, and Minato just groaned.

"Woman, you might as well tell everyone what happened yourself, because I haven't said shit about anything," Minato growled lowly.

Yukari seemed stunned silent and Junpei still had his curious face on. "Last night?" Junpei asked. Pfft. Yukari. Raising a fuss all by herself.

"Nothing happened," Minato pinched the bridge of his nose. He was talking way more than usual. It was starting to interest him, but he was still annoyed. "I ain't eye-catching enough for her to fuck, so of course not."

Yukari glared at Minato. "What!?"

"Bet you'd like that, jumping on my gun alllll night when we've only just met and there could potentially be… oh I don't know, security cameras in the rooms watching our eeeevery move," Minato played coyly. But how right was he about the security cameras?

"You're just like the rest. Keep on talking, the rumours don't mean anything," Yukari growled.

"Hey, you brought this on yourself woman," Minato shrugged before striding out of the room, not caring about the looks that he was getting from the remaining students.

"Wait man!" Junpei burst out of the doors and grabbed Minato's shoulder. "Why'd you say that to Yukari?"

Minato sighed and turned to face the capped teen. Should he string out his sentences or shrug? "There are a number of reasons, and geez, I didn't say that she was a slut, now did I?" he shrugged Junpei's grip off and walked back to the dorm.

Minato grit his teeth as he walked through the corridors, starting to hear Shadow whispers act up about him. But this time, some of them were talking about him. Dammit… he did not need that.

"How dare that asshole-"

"Even the new guy is a jerk…"

"How could he be so cute but be so mean?"

Argh! His pace to the station was brisk as he could make it. He was almost running.

"How was your day?" Mitsuru asked as he entered the lobby. There was someone else with her, shoulder length mullet, and glasses. He looked… weird.

Minato sighed. "It was so-so," he said, tilting his hand to indicate.

"I see," Mitsuru nodded. "I won't try to keep you then. I would just like to introduce you to the chairman," she said, indicating said glasses-wearer.

"Thank you Mitsuru. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki. I'm the chairman of the board for your school," he explained with a friendly smile. However, Minato was immediately put off. There was something about his Shadow that set him on edge. But he had to endure it for then. He couldn't just brush off someone like this Ikutsuki person. Unfortunately. "Ikutsuki, hard to say isn't it? Even I get a little tongue-tied sometimes."

Minato scoffed. He might've actually. It wouldn't surprise him. But he just nodded along. He didn't want to prolong the situation any longer. "Do you have any questions that you'd like to ask?" Ikutsuki asked.

Minato shook his head for 'not really', earning him a satisfied look from the chairman. "Then I hope you have a successful school year. You must be tired from all the excitement! Be sure to get some rest! After all, the early bird catches the bookworm!"

Cringe. That was. Horrible. Show power, and do not keel. He nodded. "Thank you," Minato said quietly.

"Then I'll see you another time, Arisato," Mitsuru said, ending the conversation.

He nodded at that. Mitsuru didn't seem too bad. Closed, but she was calm and cool. She didn't say as much as Yukari. Thank god for that. Oh yeah. He couldn't talk to her Shadow either. Strange, but Minato didn't feel like thinking about it too much. He walked upstairs.

Later that evening, Minato went to sleep relatively soundly, exhaling deeply before closing his eyes, unknowing of the people that watched him. "This was not the best of starts…" he mused aloud before turning onto his side and finally trying to get a good amount of sleep. Sleep was good. It saved him when there was nothing but silence.

…

"He seems to be fast asleep," Mitsuru noted as the Dark Hour fell. Of course, any normal person would transmogrify into a coffin, but that didn't seem to be the case for Arisato. He stayed in his normal form, but he seemed to be so used to it that he didn't even wake up.

Yukari bit her lip. She was torn between feeling somewhat guilty for spying on him like they did and being angry since she was still aggravated about what happened that afternoon. The thing is, he didn't seem to be all so bad, but when he wanted to insult somebody… well. She learned the hard way what happened to people that annoyed him. "I feel kinda bad, spying on him like this," she mumbled.

"It is unfortunate, but we are in desperate need of new members," Ikutsuki sighed. "Wouldn't you be more comfortable working in someone that's in your grade, Yukari-san?"

"Uh well, yeah, but…" Yukari stuttered, not really sure how to reply to that. Of course she would be; she didn't exactly feel the best around Mitsuru and Akihiko. Akihiko was out a lot more, and he seemed very nice, but she couldn't really talk to him about anything. It was always training, fighting and boxing. Mitsuru was cold, and standoffish, but she expected that. Still didn't mean she had to like her.

And Minato was a jerk, nuff said.

"In any case, we're going to have to investigate a little longer for any signs of the potential," Mitsuru mused aloud. "We'll come back tomorrow to check on him. Let's get some rest for the night."

* * *

**Nights: Isn't Minato snarky? I love snarky protags! And his witty personality is totally up to me, since none of my co-authors can match me in that, so hah! *cough* Anyway, the first battle is upon us and I assure you, this will be a total treat, since Minato has his very own compen- *stops* Enough about out, keep reading and find out! And please box us yo thoughts! Imma see you later.**

**Star: And you say I'M vain. *glares* AND DON'T FUCKING SPOIL THE READERS! That is NOT something I paid you for! And STAHP STEALING ME CATCHPHRASES! *cries*But yeah, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Again, Nights and Raidou helped to fine tune the conversations in the chapter, so yay! Wouldn't have been as good other wise.**

**Raidou: …**

**Star: *waves hand in front of him trying to get him to say something* Goddammit Raidou. This is NOT what I paid you for either! T-T**  
** Anyways, like SOMEONE said plz box us yo thoughts and we're gonna see you guys later!**

**Review Replies :3**

**Yoshikunitsu: lol, really? Hahahaha… Well. By my and Nights' non OP standards tbh. I don't think he'll be as OP as he has been in some other projects, but he'll still have a bit of a head start on fighting them. Suries!**

**JackFrostDoll: I swear this could be worse! There are so many things I want to start!**  
** Yeah, that is for later! Although, given by the hints I had cleverly (not) put in the first chapter when Minato was talking to that Shadow, what do you think gave him that ability? :3**  
** Um. I like changing my name. I haven't settled on a username I really, really like yet. If I like this one enough it'll be staying for a long time.**  
** lol, thanks! You flatter me. *dances***  
** Nope, not at all. Just a little brother. Jun's a very common name.**

**Kazikamikame24: Ah, to answer your question, no, not all of the Shadows that Minato meets will be friendly. Although, your suggestion is pretty cool, and I like it! I'll think about it with everyone.**  
** Indeed! *waves***

**AshCoveredWarrior: Thanks! :D**

**(Nights) TheRedMan: Go browse the goddamned section you clusterfucked bitch!**  
** (Star) TheRedMan: Come back here when you can write your own stories. You say that there are no good Minato X Elizabeth fics? Go write your own! Seriously! You want something done your way, you do it yourself!**

**Paradoxjr: Heyyy! Been a while. Thanks, and I'll try to work on that!**

**Richard: I guess so.**

**Droffatsstafford: Haha, I'm glad either way you put it.**  
** Haha, actually… Minato will never be able to interact with their Shadows. He'll be forced to interact normally with them if he ever wants to get information from them, which is part of his CD.**  
** lol yea.**


	3. Frenetic Thanatos

A student not wanting to go to school is something that is classified as normal. The badasses that don't go to school are too cool for school. The people that are pressured by their parents (or maybe they weren't) don't usually want to go to school for fear of a little something called _education_ (gasp and shiver) but if they have friends, then they'll endure it. A girl like Yukari, would rather not go to school if only for the classes, but she had friends to talk to, so it was fine. For Junpei he really didn't want to go, but like Yukari he had friends to hang with. As for Minato…

When Minato was younger he studied because, he seriously would've considered being a psychiatrist!

It was something like: Well younger self. I hope you can look to the future and see where your future self has gotten, because he, frankly, was stuck in a load of boring shit, _and_ he got his wish trying to fix the dredges of humanity, aka, Shadows.

Worst thing was?

It really sometimes, just seemed like _he_ was the one that needed a psychiatrist. But considering his attitude to pretty much everything else, Minato was dead sure that all of them would be annoyed and start charging him more for their services. And that was just for talking to him. You'd also have to take into account stuff like pills and medicines that some people had to take so that they could keep stuff like bipolar disorder under control.

For the most part, events at school were painfully uneventful and he could care less what actually happened in those lectures. Wait, were they even lectures? Whatever. The only part that he was really looking forward to was lunch, and even that wa—Oh nope. Melon bread. Needless to say, that was pretty much where most of his money went to.

…he needed to get a job, and the need was real.

If he had time, he would have gone out to Paulownia Mall and the strip mall to find one. He was distracted however, when he came to the first of the two, Paulownia Mall. For one thing he found a deep seated Shadow there. Of course he had to talk to it, because Minato had a thing called concern. Not a lot of people saw it. Well, not the people anyways. Shadows saw it.

"Heyo, you seem down," he whispered.

"Yeah… I uh…" The Shadow stammered. Minato raised an eyebrow before rubbing the back of his head. Somehow he could just tell that this was going to be a longer talk than usual. Just how much shit was this guy in? With that, he closed his eyes to wait for a response. He concentrated much better when he did, and there was an added perk of being able to hear what they were _doing_ as well.

Shuffling. Minato thought that it was looking from side to side. Alright. "You see, my friend has a terminal disease… a rare cancer," the Shadow began. From the moment that Minato concentrated he could feel the aura of a Chariot Shadow. Except that Shadows are always reversed of the real thing. This wasn't off to a good start however. But of course, psychiatrists always had the worst jobs of all.

"I see… do you know what it is?" Minato inquired. The first step to finding what was wrong was going to be light. If it didn't work after a while, you stepped harder. But for now, he was only pressing lightly with his questions and statements. Not only did questions cycle through his mind, but possibilities. He had to predict what happened so that he could find the best course of action to take after. It was almost like a game.

"No. I don't," The Shadow began. "But what pains me the most is that I don't know what to do about her, specifically. I'm no doctor, but I want to do something for her. I'm her best friend after all…" Rustle. Looking away or being nervous. Something of the sort was his reaction. Minato took a deep breath. Was he biting off more than he could chew?

He almost felt sorry for the Shadow's situation. Minato had some choices formed by now, and he rubbed his temple to hopefully calm down a little. What to do? What to say? What was he going to tackle first? "So… do you have an idea of well… anything that you want to do? Something, even small?" he started. Minato knew what he _should_ have been doing but he had to see first.

"I want to stay by her side to the very end…" he responded.

Minato smiled a little at that. Exactly. "Then you should go and do that!" Ow. His tongue was starting to sting, but it wasn't serious.

"Thing is…" he paused as if he couldn't continue. But he did. Bitten lip. "I'm sick too." The Shadow paused once more. "I don't know whether I'll be able to stay with her until the end…"

Oh. Look at that; a potential love story falling from the sky ready to kick any and all audience in the balls. Daayum. "I see…" Minato said. He had to think of something else to say! Think faster dammit! "I still think you should try, even if you're going to die or something," he finally continued.

"But if I die first, she'll suffer… and if she dies first, I'll suffer even more…" The Shadow said. "I just don't know what to do! I've never been more afraid of the future in my life. Every day I look to the future, looking for an answer I know I'll never get… what can I do? Why us…?" he whimpered. Minato was well aware that he was probably grimacing at the prospect.

The angst was real. Holy. Minato momentarily pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing. "I get that." Well, he thought he did anyways. "And if you really like her that much you'll be able to go through a little pain if you're going through it now. Makes sense?" Something told him that he shouldn't have said that.

"I already went through so much pain…" Gulp. That was Minato. "Maybe I should just end it all…" Sweat was starting to trickle down his forehead. Wrong response indeed. Shit. Desperate save.

"No, no! If you do that she'll follow!" Minato exclaimed, earning himself some stinging and a little blood which he quickly swallowed. He got carried away. If Minato didn't regulate how he talked, sometimes it made the cut for that hour appear faster.

"But then it'll end sooner… maybe I should take her with me too…" the Shadow said with a low tone.

"Look, if you really want to make her happy then you have to stay with her! She wouldn't want you to die because of her! She wouldn't want to remember you like that!" Minato said frantically, blood starting to pool at the bottom of his mouth as he shouted. He tried to swallow it back in order to keep his words clear. It wouldn't exactly help if blood starting pouring out of his mouth in public either, so he did that.

"But I…" Minato was feeling that the Shadow was starting to fight back. If he wasn't careful… he didn't want to think about it.

"I can understand that it can feel pointless. Death's a bitch like that," Minato breathed out heavily. He heard the Shadow mutter 'pointless' slowly. Contemplating. Okay, hopefully he could dig out of that hole that he so quickly made. "And I can't say that I understand what it feels like to go through your life, impending death on the horizon for fear that you won't wake up the next day. But…" Minato stopped to breathe. "Some might say… people give a point to going through with all of the things that are thrown at you, even with something like you dying."

The Shadow fell quiet. Minato felt more cold sweat drops start to travel in small rivulets down his face. What now? "I see…" he said. Sniff. Something akin to crying. "Thank you…"

Minato sighed in relief. Was that how people on the helpline felt like sometimes? Wonder who had the worse job? "No problem. So… you considering spending some time with her now?" he asked.

"Yeah… I'll do my best to make her happy," the Shadow said with a happier tone than before.

"Alrighty. Good luck," Minato replied. He could feel the Shadow's presence vanishing.

"I wish I could repay you somehow," he said, his voice growing fainter.

"Don't worry. I'm sure there'll be a way," Minato sighed as he ran his hand through his hair and then wiped the building sweat that he had off his forehead. With that, the Shadow disappeared completely.

Quickly, Minato opened his bag and fished out a thick tome with damaged leather for the outside and black pages inside. Silently, he leafed through it. He couldn't find the Shadow now since it wasn't the Dark Hour, but he folded a dog ear page to remind himself to find that Shadow when he can.

No job, and it was evening. Lovely. Minato strolled back to his room, idly thinking about where he could find the Shadow that he just 'purified' (yes, that was what he called it) because he couldn't just call it 'enlightened' and make a horrible pun. Even though that was _exactly_ what happened. Ugh. Conventions of society, why? Anyways, yes, he did wonder where he could find it. He should take another night to do so.

The thing about how Minato went about his Shadow purification was that it was painfully tedious. He couldn't go after every Shadow that he purified in the day because he could only put them into his Shadow Compendium- as he had dubbed it –in the Dark Hour. Each page in the Shadow Compendium was black, and only he could read the details of the Shadows he absorbed into it. Shadow Whispering had script too so fat chance that anyone could read it. There were pretty pictures of them inside though.

Why'd he have it? Well that was because—

Bang!

B-because… of… oh god. Was that a fucking Shadow? Whatever he was hearing, it was huge! There were only low chances that he could get it into his book. That being said, he held onto the tome with a vice grip as the dorm shook.

"Hey, are you awake?" he heard. "Sorry, I'm coming in!"

Yukari. Sigh. How did she get into his room? Did someone give her a key or something? Dayum. He stood up and brushed himself off as she came into the room. "You're already awake? Ugh, never mind, we have to get out of here quick!" she exclaimed. "U-Uh, take this!"

She was hella nervous… "K-Keep it, I'm good," Minato shrugged, and she nodded back slowly. Well, he did give her the better weapon. At least with swords you can kinda slash things to pieces, but for books? You kinda just have to whack things really hard. Yes, very impractical, but still.

"Uh alright," Yukari said, rushing downstairs. Minato followed after her with the same speed. He wasn't looking to get left behind. She pressed her fingers to what seemed to be an earpiece, and she seemed exceptionally frazzled to him.

"The one that we're fighting isn't the one that Akihiko saw," Mitsuru spoke through the communicator.

"Ugh… we've gotta find another way out!" Yukari exclaimed.

"Roof?" Minato said uncertainly, pointing upwards. He wasn't sure what could happen if they went back but there was only so much that the two of them could do to keep safe.

"Um, okay," Yukari said nervously. With that, the two of them made their ways upstairs.

Yukari slammed the door shut behind them and _locked_ it as if Shadows could open doors. Thing is, they can't, and neither of them can escape that easily if something as unlikely as a Shadow climbing up the side of the buildi—

Minato cursed as he heard an icky lurch of Shadow flesh and ichor, and black, inky fingers inched up over the rooftop edge. A blue mask held up by what seemed to be an arm, peered around its surroundings.

Both he and Yukari really didn't want to get spotted by it, but somehow he thought that no matter what they did, they were going to get seen.

Hollow eyes gouged in the blue mask latched onto the two of them with an eerie gaze. Shit.

Yukari was shaking like a leaf at the sight of the huge Shadow. She had seen small ones before and she could kind of deal with them, but that one was looking to be huge and leaking menace to match. But she had to do something about it! Her trembling fingers grasped the silver gun in her holster, and she pointed it to her forehead.

"H-Hey wait, what are you trying to-" Minato actually shouted as he saw Yukari point that _gun_ to her forehead. But he was cut off by the sight of a huge torrent of fire launching at Yukari and she tripped when she saw it, falling onto the ground and thankfully, avoiding the attack.

Minato bit his lip. Yukari was mostly out. It would be a while until she could get back into it. But god, how the hell was he going to fight that thing with those huge-ass swords that it's waving around? He gritted his teeth. Yukari was useless, and he had to do something to save both of them. He wasn't going to let someone die, regardless of how annoying he or she was.

Minato closed his eyes as the monstrosity slowly came closer and closer. Minato concentrated and whispered the same haunting language through his wounded tongue. Perhaps it was for that same reason that Yukari felt an unsettling shiver run up her spine.

The Shadow suddenly stopped as Minato gave a friendly smile, hoping it would get calmed down. "W-What's happening?" Mitsuru asked, as her ears cringed from the unearthly whispers that were coming from the speakers, however faint they were.

"Is that the shadow!?" Akihiko said in surprise. "Didn't know these punks could talk."

Ikutsuki adjusted his glasses with a nervous expression. Or… was it Arisato?

Minato whispered. "There's no need to fight," he said slowly as the Shadow stood there, its hollow gaze upon Minato who kept whispering whatever he could come up with to calm the shadow. "We shouldn't fight. Let's just go our separate ways," Minato continued. The Shadow gave a low grunt in response.

"What was that?" Minato asked. The shadow gave out a piercing screech in return, making Minato take a step back. The hostility that the shadow leaked was unparalleled.

"Death…" was the Shadow's only answer, before it charged at Minato again. This time, the blue haired teen was sure that no amount of reasoning could stop him.

"Very well…" Minato growled, flipping his compendium open.

The battered old book released several haunted screeches in unison, making the Shadow halt once more. Yukari, who had barely gotten up, collapsed once again from the ungodly sounds. "W-What is he!?"

Minato closed the compendium which was now emitting low grunts and snarls. He held it tightly against his chest and taunted the Shadow to come over. It lunged towards him and aimed a thrust with one of his many knives.

Minato brought the compendium in front of him, blocking the sword. The Shadow aimed another thrust for his legs, which Minato jumped over, before dodging one that was aimed for his gut by rolling away.

"Tch!" Minato stood up and opened the book he was holding, before tearing out a piece of paper and crumbling it. The Shadow came closer and Minato and smashed the crumbled paper onto the ground, visibly creating a dent, and just then, pillars of flame shot up from the ground, forming a fiery shield around Minato who smirked.

The Shadow leapt went over the flames with no problem, before slashing the surprised Minato on the chest, ripping his blazer, shirt and flesh. Minato staggered back and looked down. Blood was gushing out. "Not now… this is not needed," he whispered, before dodging out of the way again.

"How the fuck can I hurt him when he has a bazillion swords!?" He scowled, opening the compendium once again and flipping through the pages.

"Fire…" he mused, flipping to another page, "Healing... Not needed," He closed the compendium and opened it from the other side, before furiously flipping once again. A grin slid into his face. "Ice..."

"Help me!" Minato shouted, tearing an entire page off the compendium and hurling it towards the Shadow. The blackish paper soon twisted and turned into a blur of darkness, which gave off a demonic laugh, sending shivers up Yukari's spine.

The blur collided with the shadow, instantly exploding into a torrent of wicked cold ice that sent the Shadow reeling back with a screech of its own. "HAHAHA!" Minato laughed, flipping the Shadow off. The Shadow somehow sensed Minato's mocking and made another run for the teen.

Minato rolled out of the way yet again, as the Shadow pulled its many swords back and formed a gigantic fireball between two blades. Minato didn't have enough time to roll away or dodge, and so he was blasted by the searing flames. He gave out a scream of agony, before backing away and rolling on the ground quickly, in order to dispel the flames.

"D-Dammit!" He slowly stood up and opened his compendium once again. He tore away two pieces of paper, before giving them a bluish glow. "LAUNCH!" Minato shouted, as he chucked them towards the shadow. The two charged up bits of paper slashed the Shadow on two of his many arms, making it drop a couple of swords.

"Zio!" Minato shouted, pointing the open compendium towards the Shadow and unleashing a bolt of lightning that struck the Shadow head on, trailing small tendrils of lightning from the impact. The Shadow shrugged the damage off and charged once more.

Minato blocked some of the slashes with his compendium, but a few found their mark on him, slashing his leg and arm. He backed away, as more blood gushed down. "Dammit!" Minato shouted, tearing out yet another bit and running it across the wound on his arm. Black mist was given off as the wound on his arm somehow closed up, with a bit of Ichor staining his skin.

Minato launched a flurry of more bits of paper, in retaliation to the Shadow's slashes. "Go away!" Minato whispered in the same haunting language.

The Shadow growled back, as numerous slashes found its mark on it, making it drop more swords. Minato smirked and charged, picking up one sword and hurling it towards the Shadow with dead accuracy, embedding the sword right into its hollow eye. The Shadow released the loudest screech yet, making everyone cover their ears.

Minato laughed coldly in return. He was looking to open fire another round of the deadly slashes, but that thought vanished as his gaze fell onto the peculiar silver gun that Yukari was holding. It was lying right next to his feet. "Go on…" If Minato wasn't hallucinating, he was sure the whispering voice belonged to the child he encountered on his first night to the dorm.

Minato slowly bent down and picked the cold metal up in his hand. The Shadow growled, trying to compose itself. Minato slowly held the gun against his temple and closed his eyes. The Shadows were calming down for some reason, the ones in his compendium, but the big bastard was still as raged as ever.

"Per…" Minato whispered, almost like a reflex. "SONA!" He shouted, unloading a bullet into his temple. Glass shards and blue mist exploded from the other side of his temple, as Minato gave a power hungry grin to the shadow. A beautiful creature appeared behind Minato, a lyre on his back and an organic face on top of a mechanical body.

"Orph-GAHHH!" Minato dropped to his knees, throwing his compendium to the side as a terrible rush of power penetrated, drilled into his skull, making him scream out in pain. Orpheus felt the same pain, and moments later, a pair of gloved hands dug out of the mechanical body, before ripping Orpheus in half, and giving rise to a more sinister and deadly creature, with black robes, a cape of coffins and a dragon-like mask on a featureless face. Thanatos. Death. What other names could there be?

The new creature let out a bestial roar as Minato slowly stood up and screamed in unison. The power, it felt great. It didn't matter if it was wrecking his mind, it was just so incredible. The deadlier new monstrosity charged at the Shadow, cleaving it in half with his blood stained sword. Minato watched with a grin, as Death itself began to tear and claw away at the Shadow which nearly seemed invincible moments ago.

"HAHAHAHA!" Minato laughed as Death finally finished the bloody work and gave out another bestial roar, nearly crushing Yukari's eardrums. The Shadow dissolved into bits of smouldering Ichor and flesh, the mask going along with it in smoke. Minato grinned with ragged breaths he watched it burn up into nothing.

If anyone could see what Thanatos' face looked like under his mask and armour, surely there would have been one of the sickest smiles, filled with absolute glee at the prospect of killing, destroying, just _ravaging_ everything in his path. A hollow growl filtered from the beast before it disappeared into static.

As Thanatos dissipated, Minato fell from his power high, and slumped onto the ground, unconscious. He could only faintly hear the sound of footsteps and Yukari's panicked voice before he passed out.

* * *

**Star: Hello peeps, we're back again with another fun filled chapta fo you guys since I finally got off my butt and ran this chapter for just about three hours. That was FAST. This chapter is dedicated to the Magician fight and fleshing out how Minato uses his Shadows this time, so hope you enjoyed that! That being said I can't give all the credit for the writing to just one person thing time; this time Nights got to write the Magician fight! Woohoo! That might be why it's more epic than usual. *claps* Anyways, plz box us yo thoughts and we'll see ya guys later!**

**Raidou: … *flicked by Nights***

**Nights: Why thank you RG, but I already know it's more epic than usual *cough* Anyway, she is correct. I did write the Magician battle. I hope you guys get some info about his powers, he's cold and calculating, and mostly a ranged fighter, since his Shadows do the fighting for him. That's that! I'd love to spoil ya guys, but she'll dock my pay. Sigh. Anyway, like SOMEONE said, box us yo thoughts. I'll see you later.**

**Reviews! :D**

**Guest: I quite enjoy them myself as well. We'll put more snark in, definitely.**

**Ash: Ah, well… that might have something to do with Nights.**  
** Yeah, I get what you mean. But he ain't all annoying and an asshole, really. He will have to later if he wants to get things from them.**  
** Sure will!**

**Lemo: I think so too. That's why it's toned down this time.**

**Yoshikunitsu: Glad! There's more coming! Lol.**  
** Not yet, he hasn't had a chance. Not on Akihiko anyways. He kinda gave up on Mitsuru too…**  
** We will!**

**Paradoxjr: Haha, if there's going to be any bashing, it won't be my fault. Guess it's my job to keep Nights away from Ken then… *sweatdrops***

**Guest: Yeah. But yeah… that is an interesting possibility. We'll see.**  
** Negotiate, yes. I don't think it would be possible for Shadows to give out Persona cards however… maybe skill cards though, but I don't know what we're doing with that mechanic yet.**

**JackFrostDoll: There are a lot of possibilities, yeah? But the very first clues are given in the first chapter when he talks to the Shadow of the businessman. See what you find. **  
** And I told Nights to keep Nyarly's claws offa this thing. -_-**


	4. Guiding Wings

"Welcome to the Velvet Room…"

Minato groaned and tried to lift his heavy eyelids. They drooped back down, but seeing a sliver of rich blue in a glimpse, his interest was piqued. He shook as much fatigue as he could off his mind and looked around. He was… in a considerably different place than he was before. He was pretty sure that he passed out on a rooftop, not in a weird blue elevator room or summat like that.

…Especially not a weird blue elevator room with an elf like being sitting in front of him. Minato's eyes widened at this point. Where the fuck was this place? "Come again?" he laughed nervously to the long-nosed man. Minato was serious. His nose was hella long, and insufferably fixating. Why.

The man chuckled. "This is the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It's been years since we've had a guest," he said. "My name is Igor, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

Minato blinked. Of course he was named Igor, but making an acquaintance with this guy? He didn't think so. He had blood-shot eyes, elf ears and weird-ass eyebrows! He wasn't making friends with this creep! Actually… Minato tried to sense for Igor's Shadow, but he couldn't find anything! At all! Not even the slightest hint of a Shadow, and not even that weird block that he got from sensing the other dorm residents. It was freaking him out actually, but he did his best to contain his shock. "Uh… right," he stammered. 'Did his best', meant not really. "Last time I checked I'm pretty sure I passed out on a roof, not in a psychedelic blue room that has a clock in the background and has no ceiling."

"Your satire is quite delightful. Regardless, we have summoned you here to begin something of great importance," Igor continued with a light chuckle and a wide grin pasted handily on his face. Actually, had he ever once stopped smiling during that whole conversation? Minato was sure that this situation, whatever he was in, was getting creepier by the moment. "But first, I must introduce someone to you that I've sadly neglected. This is Elizabeth…"

Minato turned his look in the direction that Igor was indicating, and he laughed nervously. How did he not notice this bombshell before? She was hot, 'nuff said. But he didn't say that aloud. "Pleased to meet you," Elizabeth said with an enigmatic smile. Minato gazed upon her with curious eyes. Maybe it was because he was too busy taking her in that he didn't notice the clipped tone that she had. She had golden eyes, fair skin and short blonde hair in a bob cut that framed her face. Atop her head, was a blue hat, and she had blue gloves, dress and shoes to match.

Igor's chuckling interrupted Minato's train of thought. Or more like… a lack of said train. "Do you remember this?" Minato drew his eyes from Elizabeth to the table in front of him, seeing a folder. Hey, wasn't that the thing that the kid in the Dark Hour told him to sign? "This is your contract, and as you can see…" As Igor continued, he flipped the folder open, revealing Minato's name in kanji on the bottom line. Minato was panicking once again. Did that freaky contract he signed sell his soul or something? Note: never trust creepy kids in the Dark Hour again. "This contract says that you are responsible for your own actions."

"Uh… I guess there ain't any loop holes that can get me out of this room, right?" Minato chuckled nervously.

Igor gave another amused laugh before replying, "No. This contract is what allows you to enter this room. Only those with the contract can enter the Velvet Room." Minato just then, made the connection that it was called the Velvet Room because of how blue it was. Made sense. For once.

"Are you going to tell me the purpose of this thing then if I'm kinda stuck into coming here?" Minato sighed. This was just not his day. Getting attacked by a big Shadow, nearly getting killed, getting summoned to a room apparently in humanity's consciousness or some shit, and meeting with an equally weird elf person. The only thing that was looking up for him at this point was that he was able to meet a girl hotter than any he had seen in his life before.

"Not at this point in time. But… there will be another, and then you will come here of your own accord, and that is when we shall be able to illuminate a few matters," Igor said. Minato scoffed. It was like being stuck with a cliff hanger. It wasn't fun and was more annoying than anything. "Hold onto this." With that, a small key fell from the ceiling. If there was a ceiling. Minato couldn't tell. It looked more like it was nearly endless. Anyways, it fell into his hand. He looked upon it a few moments before turning his gaze back to Igor. He could live with this, he's lived with weirder… happens with Shadows and the Dark Hour thing and whatever…

"And this can get me into this place if I have it?" Minato said. After asking, he realised that it was probably the most stupid question that he had asked in his life.

"Indeed," Igor chuckled. "Now, time marches on in your world. I shouldn't keep you here any longer. Until we meet again… farewell," he waved, and Minato's vision turned blinding white.

"I will see you again," Minato faintly heard what he thought was Elizabeth's voice before he couldn't hear any more.

"Master," Elizabeth turned to Igor.

"What is it?" Igor asked, his grin for once, receding.

"Must I serve someone who wields the powers of the reversed psyche, like him?" Elizabeth asked, biting her lip. As an attendant to the Velvet Room, she was meant to help chosen guests on their journeys to fulfil their contracts, and their destinies.

"As Philemon has decreed, his will must be done," Igor sighed heavily. Even if he would never admit it, he had never encountered a case such as Minato before. The 'usual way', just wouldn't work. "Bear with him Elizabeth. You already know his fate," he shook his head sadly.

Elizabeth too sighed. There really wasn't much she could do but follow him and help him along his journey, but she couldn't trust someone that used Shadows' powers for his own. It was indeed, that kind of tampering with Shadowy power that led to the catastrophe they had to resolve in the first place. "I will do my best…"

…

Minato opened his eyes. Again. But he felt way more banged up than he remembered. That dream with the blue room and everything was some psychedelic shit. He almost felt like it had to be a dream, but somehow there was something inside him that told him it wasn't. "Oh, you're awake!"

The blue haired teen turned to the direction of the voice, finding Yukari sitting next to his bed on a stool. Speaking of which, where was he? The surroundings looked way different than before. Maybe it had to do with seeing white for the sky as opposed to black or blue and the bed where he lay was lumpier than his one at the dorm. That might've just been him though. "Oh. Hi," he said shortly, before feeling a sharp pain in his tongue. Nope, no talking for him apparently.

"I'm glad to see you're doing okay," Yukari said. "We were worried sick about you! You just kept sleeping and sleeping and sleeping… do you have any idea how worried I was about you?" she exclaimed. "You were out for about a week! A-And your power…"

He blinked. Thought she didn't like him. But then again, life and death situations tended to be different. And well… he did make a conscious decision to protect Yukari that night so… Yukari seemed to catch his thick stare and sighed. "How are you feeling?" Also wait, he was asleep for a week?

Raising his hand, he tilted it from side to side. So-so, it meant. "That's good," she smiled. "Um… I wanted to talk to you about something." Minato looked back at her curiously. He always had to listen. A nod and Yukari saw it was okay to go on. "Um… I just wanted to say thank you for protecting me. I didn't think I was going to be much help back there… I panicked and…"

Minato shrugged. Thinking about it, he didn't particularly mind. Again, it was a conscious decision on his part and Shadows were tough. Especially that one. Yukari didn't seem convinced, so for once he said, "It's fine."

"Oh um… okay," Yukari sighed in relief. "Also I… have to get this out of my mind… I've been thinking about it for a while now. But… I wanted to say that I'm… I'm kinda like you," she said.

Again, Minato gave her a questioning look, imploring her to explain. "My dad… he died in an accident ten years ago and I don't really talk to my mum anymore." Minato understood. He supposed that maybe, he was a _tiny_ bit like her then, but still different. "You're all alone too, aren't you?"

Minato almost felt like throwing a snark at that, but he felt like he shouldn't. Talking to Shadows let him know that you couldn't simply just brush off their feelings without getting hurt or feeling really bad in the end. "I see what you're saying," he said, struggling to complete his sentence as that annoying stinging appeared again. "But I just want to say that we're still different," Minato continued.

Yukari looked at him in surprise. She still felt mad at him for what he said to her a few days ago, so it caught her off guard to see him surprisingly docile and understanding of all things. "Besides. We're not really alone, yeah? You got friends," he shrugged. "I got my own too. Losing parents is bad but…"

Minato stopped mid-sentence. That wasn't where he wanted to go with his train of thought. "Actually… Why'd you tell me? I'm not exactly nice." Cough.

Yukari opened her mouth to speak before closing it again. She wasn't quite sure why she felt compelled to. But she supposed… "I guess I thought it would be good to know that you aren't… or we aren't alone without someone who doesn't know how you're feeling."

Minato gazed idly at her for a few moments, scrutinising her expression and words. And yet, he couldn't find any reason to deny that. "You're not half bad," Minato finally said. "Most people are too busy caring about their own shit to worry about others." Before Yukari could interrupt him, he continued with, "I'm sorry for snapping at you a few days ago. I'm used to being surrounded by imbeciles. Makes me irritated."

"U-Um… it's okay," Yukari mumbled. "Thank you for listening though. I'd been waiting to tell someone that for a really long time," she smiled softly.

"I should be called a counsellor or psychologist or something," Minato nodded to himself. "Say. I don't think you're so annoying like the others. If ya need someone—cough –to talk to, then I'm open."

"Are you sure?" Yukari asked.

Minato nodded. "Yup."

Yukari looked at him steadily before finally smiling. "Alright. Thank you," she said as she stood. "I should tell the others that you've woken up now."

He nodded back at her and with that she left his ward. That wasn't so ba— Where's his compendium? Huh… Also, he felt a strange surge of calming power enter after that encounter. He didn't know what it was though. It was… different to Shadow power. Again, huh.

…

Once Minato returned to the dorm after the next day of school—he was told earlier at that lunchtime that he should come to the command room by Yukari—he made his way up, finally getting a chance to properly absorb and observe the sight of the doors by the stairs that led to the rooftop. He saw it before, but considering they were in a hella lot of trouble, there was no way to fully examine it. Until now.

"Well… here goes nothing," he mumbled. With that, he entered the command room, finding Mitsuru, Ikutsuki, Yukari and a grey-haired teen in a red vest. He wasn't sure who that one was. But he looked taller than him, and more mature. Minato guessed he was a senior, like Mitsuru. After looking, he took a seat on the couch next to Yukari. Wonder what they were going to ask. Maybe they were going to ask him everything that he knew.

"Hey," the grey haired senior said. Minato regarded his senpai with a nod.

"This is Akihiko Sanada. He's another resident of the dorm and he's a year older than you," Mitsuru introduced him briefly. Minato barely had any time to formulate a response before Iktusuki broke through his thoughts.

"So Arisato, how long have you been aware of the Dark Hour?" Ikutsuki began. Cutting right to the chase, Minato mused.

"Ten years," he answered shortly. Minato took a few moments to observe the looks on their faces, especially catching the grey-haired senior's horrified face, and Mitsuru's attempt to prevent any emotion from showing on her face. Yukari looked at him incredulously, and that he expected. Ikutsuki's expression seemed to be… strangely devoid of reaction. It was unsettling… Actually now that he thought about it, he could barely sense the man's Shadow, even though Minato was pretty sure that he didn't have a Persona of any kind. It was almost as if it was locked up too tight for him to be able to probe into his Shadow. He wasn't sure that he wanted to.

"I see…" Mitsuru said after recomposing herself. "Anyways. We called you here to ask of you a request." Minato scoffed. Of course. What else? He raised an eyebrow as if to ask 'what' and the senior continued with, "You see, we dorm residents make up a special group known as SEES that aims to minimise damage from Shadows and find out more about the mysteries of the Dark Hour."

Minato laughed a little, but he was so quiet that no-one else noticed. They actually managed to call it the Dark Hour like he did. Now that was hilarious, or a really bad coincidence. He was leaning towards the latter. "I suppose you want me to join or something?"

"Correct. You see, only those with the potential, and power to summon Persona can fight against Shadows," Ikutsuki explained. Minato's eyes widened. So apparently this was supposed to be a special thing. "Mitsuru sensed that you wield a great deal of power… that allowed you to battle against that Shadow on that night."

"Where. Is. The book?" Minato said slowly, glaring at Mitsuru and Ikutsuki in particular.

"You mean this?" Mitsuru said, drawing from a bag the familiar form of his battered compendium, hissing and shaking like usual. The Shadows in it were easily stirred.

Minato nodded. "Are you going to give it to me or not?"

"We were going to… but we won't give it back unless you explain exactly what your powers are," Mitsuru said sternly. Minato looked at her with a snarl rising in his throat. He really wanted that book back.

"What if I do tell you my powers and you give back my book?" Minato pressed further.

"It depends," Mitsuru continued, undeterred by Minato's seething.

He clicked his tongue. He didn't have much of a choice here if he wanted his compendium, and at this point he couldn't care whether his tongue hurt or not. "I'll tell you straight then. I can talk to Shadows, your very enemies. It has a drawback, in which after talking with them for too long, I can sustain serious injuries to my tongue, and that's why it's hella hard for me to talk in succession unless I really try," Minato began.

He wasn't going to give anyone any room to interrupt either. "Depending on how tame I can make them after conversing with them, I can use their powers and pack them into my compendium, which contains all of the Shadows that I've collected to protect me thus far, and I can collect them if they turn into pages, which I can rip out, or use as summoning material to summon them. Then I can use their spells and even let them do all the work of killing other threats before I recall them," Minato explained. Argh, fuck! Minato quickly swallowed some blood that pooled up, checking everyone's reactions.

"Whoa…" Yukari stammered.

"How is that even possible…?" the grey haired senior mumbled.

"I don't know Akihiko…" Mitsuru said, eyeing Minato suspiciously.

"You still want me to join?" Minato smirked. "I'm only looking out for my own here." Actually now that he thought about it… he remembered that the Kirijo group was pretty involved in the accident ten years ago. He did still want to know what happened on that night. It was some crazy blur of events after all.

"Unfortunately Mitsuru, even if you have some misgivings about his association with Shadows, we are in desperate need of members," Ikutsuki said.

"I'll join up," Minato began, bringing everyone to attention. "But I have some conditions."

Mitsuru clicked her tongue. "What might they be?"

"One. I'm staying in my room. I've grown rather attached to that bed," Minato said, earning him a deadpan from Yukari which he shrugged off easily. "Two, I can kinda use a Persona. I guess I know what it is. But I use Shadows more. Got a problem with that?"

"…not at all," Mitsuru bit her lip. As much as she didn't want to have someone that could communicate with their very enemies, as Ikutsuki said, their options were sorely limited and he was probably the most powerful Persona user that they had encountered thus far.

Somehow, Minato knew that some bad things were happening in the atmosphere. They didn't trust him. Who would trust someone that was inherently the proverbial wild card, and could apparently manipulate their very enemies to an extent? It was mind boggling, truly. He was unpredictable for them, and that was from where tension was born. "Good," he nodded. "Can we get some sleep now? I want some."

"Of course," Iktusuki replied.

The command room was left with a strange, tense silence, only broken for Minato by strange warmth that blossomed from within his heart. It felt similar to the time that he finished talking with Yukari actually.

It was… different.

But he still had no idea what it was. Somehow though, he could feel that it was a good thing. Somehow. He didn't know why. In that one instant, it felt as if a string was drawn between each of the SEES members, and he was tethered to that group. A bond of some kind, and it was near unbreakable.

Minato gave a sigh as he found sleep quickly. Whatever he thought was coming next was going to be interesting indeed…

* * *

**Nights: Sooo... not much action this time, but still! This did give some information about Minato's compendium. *coughicameupwiththatideathankyouverymuchcough* And, Minato sorta warmed up to Yukari so another yay. Next chapter is the Tartarus expedition, so you can expect that I'll be busting out some killer battle scenes *cough* Stay tuned, and please do box us yo thoughts. Imma see you guys later. *runs off***

**Star: Nights said pretty much everything I wanted to say. But unfortunately our kinda beta reader is down without a decent working laptop so if from now on some aspects of the chapters seem a little unpolished or I don't seem as confident as usual, that's probably why. In any case, if I feel like writing I'll be going on without Raidou for now until he magically decides to come back or something.**

**Reviews!**

**Ash: I'm glad you like him. I wanted to make him a more different character than usual, and Nights wanted to make him snarkier so it kinda worked out. **  
** Yup. And think that this is only a minor Shadow that he had to deal with this time… Hehe.**  
** Yeah. Nights' magic at work.**  
** Suries.**

**Mr. Haziq: Well, we tried to explain it in the chapter, so hopefully some speculations are confirmed, or not.**

**Yoshikunitsu: Yeah, Minato's a whole lot different in fighting style. I'd figure he'd be more akin to how Elizabeth fought. …that is an interesting though now, considering what the pairing is though.**

**JackFrostDoll: If you really have the time. Oh we will… and who it will be will surprise you. Hehe.**

**Kagemoto: Glad you liked it.**

**Aniki120: Yeah, it's a main plot point. Haha, well to give you an even better idea, if you compare their levels now, Minato is somewhere around the late 20s now. And that… was a good idea that we kinda expounded on. You might see it later on.**


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